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Lee Hazlewood

Cowboy In Sweden

Light In The Attic

LITA153LP

LP Black $21
CD $14
Digital Download $9.99
  • Remastered from pristine original LHI master tapes
  • Includes previously unheard versions of “Pray Them Bars Away” & “Easy & Me"
  • Liner notes by Hunter Lea including interviews with Torbjörn Axelman, Suzi Jane Hokom, Nina Lizell, Don Randi, Hal Blaine and Shel Talmy
  • Rare film production photos from the Torbjörn Axelman archive
  • LP housed in a deluxe gatefold Stoughton tip-on jacket

Description

Lee Hazlewood spent a good part of the late 1960s traveling the globe, cutting records and inking business deals. A string of hits with Nancy Sinatra enabled Lee to build a mini media empire Lee Hazlewood Industries and afforded him nearly unlimited resources…for a time. By the end of the decade LHI Records had burned piles of cash, gone through a half dozen distributors and failed to achieve the kind of chart success “Boots" had promised.

Fortunately for Lee there was a land where he was still on the top of the charts, a place where women flowed like Brannvin…Sweden was calling.

While on an LHI promotional tour in Stockholm, Lee crossed paths with Swedish director Torbjörn Axelman. “I met Lee through my script girl, in Stockholm in 1969,” remembers Axelman. "We noticed we had very many similarities, interests, and the same backgrounds. It led to many productions during our 38 years of close partnership and friendship.” The partnership showed Lee the way forward and allowed him an easy exit strategy from the LHI house of cards that was crumbling in Los Angeles.

Light In The Attic records is proud to continue its Lee Hazlewood series with this expanded reissue of Cowboy in Sweden. Released as the last LHI LP, Cowboy in Sweden was a soundtrack to the 1970 cult classic film of the same name starring Lee Hazlewood. The film was a surreal psychedelic account of Lee’s journey to his new homeland, while the soundtrack was a perfect compilation of Hazlewood’s strongest songs recorded over a prolific globe trotting three year period. The production scope of the album was the most ambitious of his career, recorded in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Stockholm with a slew of talented session musicians, producers and arrangers.

Cowboy in Sweden is quite possibly the purest distillation of the Hazlewood sound; lush melancholy country pop with a pinch of humor (“Pray Them Bars Away”), a dash of bummer (“Cold Hard Times”), some beautiful ladies to sing with (“Leather & Lace” & “Hey Cowboy”) and even a couple anti-war protest songs to be topical (”No Train to Stockholm” & “For A Day Like Today”). The David “Bitter Sweet Symphony” Whitaker arranged orchestral pop of “What’s More I Don’t Need Her” and the stone cold Hazlewood classic “The Night Before” cement the album as Lee’s peak on LHI records and ironically the label’s swan song.

Lee Hazlewood spent a good part of the late 1960s traveling the globe, cutting records and inking business deals. A string of hits with Nancy Sinatra enabled Lee to build a mini media empire Lee Hazlewood Industries and afforded him nearly unlimited resources…for a time. By the end of the decade LHI Records had burned piles of cash, gone through a half dozen distributors and failed to achieve the kind of chart success “Boots" had promised.

Fortunately for Lee there was a land where he was still on the top of the charts, a place where women flowed like Brannvin…Sweden was calling.

While on an LHI promotional tour in Stockholm, Lee crossed paths with Swedish director Torbjörn Axelman. “I met Lee through my script girl, in Stockholm in 1969,” remembers Axelman. "We noticed we had very many similarities, interests, and the same backgrounds. It led to many productions during our 38 years of close partnership and friendship.” The partnership showed Lee the way forward and allowed him an easy exit strategy from the LHI house of cards that was crumbling in Los Angeles.

Light In The Attic Records is proud to continue its Lee Hazlewood Archival Series with this expanded reissue of Cowboy in Sweden. Released as the last LHI LP, Cowboy in Sweden was a soundtrack to the 1970 cult classic film of the same name starring Lee Hazlewood. The film was a surreal psychedelic account of Lee’s journey to his new homeland, while the soundtrack was a perfect compilation of Hazlewood’s strongest songs recorded over a prolific globe trotting three year period. The production scope of the album was the most ambitious of his career, recorded in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Stockholm with a slew of talented session musicians, producers and arrangers.

Cowboy in Sweden is quite possibly the purest distillation of the Hazlewood sound; lush melancholy country pop with a pinch of humor (“Pray Them Bars Away”), a dash of bummer (“Cold Hard Times”), some beautiful ladies to sing with (“Leather & Lace” & “Hey Cowboy”) and even a couple anti-war protest songs to be topical (”No Train to Stockholm” & “For A Day Like Today”). The David “Bitter Sweet Symphony” Whitaker arranged orchestral pop of “What’s More I Don’t Need Her” and the stone cold Hazlewood classic “The Night Before” cement the album as Lee’s peak on LHI Records and ironically the label’s swan song.

Artist Bio

Though he’s perhaps best known for his work with Nancy Sinatra (including writing mega-hit "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"), Hazlewood did stunning work away from that particular glamour queen and found latter day champions in Beck, Sonic Youth, Jarvis Cocker, and Spiritualized.

A songwriter and producer by trade, Hazlewood sang the songs that no one else wanted to take from him, never quite achieving the success that others had with his compositions and drawing few royalties from them in comparison. These were the tracks released on his own LHI label: Lee Hazlewood Industries.

A natural wanderer, Lee lived a big life, fighting in the Korean War, working as a radio DJ in Phoenix, Arizona, setting up Viv Records in the 50s, working as a big-shot LA producer in the 60s, signing Phil Spector to his Trey Records label, and prematurely announcing retirement in the wake of the mid-60s British invasion. (Spoiler alert: he didn’t). Nancy Sinatra came along, the hits started flowing, and he continued producing characterful solo albums into the 70s, which saw his move to Sweden. By 2007, Hazlewood was living in Vegas and begrudgingly enjoying that flurry of latter-day interest in his work.

Preview Tracklist

  • 1 Pray Them Bars Away
    2:50
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  • 2 Leather and Lace
    3:09
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  • 3 Forget Marie
    2:05
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  • 4 Cold Hard Times
    2:28
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  • 5 The Night Before
    3:20
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  • 6 Hey Cowboy
    3:24
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  • 7 No Train to Stockholm
    2:24
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  • 8 For a Day Like Today
    4:09
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  • 9 Easy and Me
    2:55
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  • 10 What's More I Don't Need Her
    3:34
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  • 11 Vem kan segla f√∂rutan vind (I Can Sail Without the Wind)
    2:24
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  • 12 Me and the Wine and the City Lights
    2:22
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  • 13 Easy and Me (alternate version)
    2:48
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  • 14 Pray Them Bars Away (alternate version)
    2:11
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